W.D. Pa. Notes Split Re Exhaustion Requirement of Prison Litigation Reform Act

Per Burkhart v. Crawford County Correctional Facility, Slip Copy, 2008 WL 65600 (W.D. Pa. Jan. 04, 2008):

The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has explicitly held that the exhaustion requirement of the PLRA includes a procedural default component, by analogizing it to the exhaustion doctrine (with its corollary procedural default component) in the habeas context. Spruill v. Gillis, 372 F.3d 218, 228-229 (3d Cir.2004).^FN2

FN2. There is a split of authority among the Circuits on this issue. Compare Berry v. Kerik, 366 F.3d 85 (2d Cir.2004), Ross v. County of Bernalillo, 365 F.3d 1181 (10th Cir.2004), and Pozo v. McCaughtry, 286 F.3d 1022 (7th Cir.2002), with Thomas v. Woolum, 337 F.3d 720 (6th Cir.2003).